Tag Archives: movie

It’s been a long time since I’ve cringed so consistently at a film. It’s like someone watched the Usual Suspects, read a bit about the noir genre, and then got a shitload of money from their uncle to finish their first draft script.

Tatsuo Kusakabe: Trees and people used to be good friends. I saw that tree and decided to buy the house.

A movie that has the capability of being imaginative, cute, and fun when it sets out to be. The real issue, and perhaps this is a cultural difference, is that those moments were too few and far between, and the rest of the plot was far too sparse to hold it together.

The Criminologist: And crawling, on the planet’s face, some insects, called the human race. Lost in time, and lost in space… and meaning.

Whether you love camp or not, it’s pretty clear this is the finest campy film ever made. It can be a bit much at time, but the cast is fun, the music is great, and it is a really enjoyable film to watch.

The movie features some brutal and really compelling fight scenes paired with a fairly rote espionage/double-cross style plot. The cinematography techniques that worked so well in most of Soderbergh’s films just do not fit this one though, and all of the performances seem purposefully muted and flat for whatever reason, creating a really strange tone.

It’s always a pretty strong sign that you’re watching a mediocre comedy when they’ve exhausted all the decent joke material by midway through act 2, and decide that the audience really just wants to see the emotional plot resolution and redemptive arc. This was clearly a paycheck to most of the talent involved, and it was almost entirely forgettable, but not in any sort of aggressive or obnoxious way.

Definitely the most enigmatic and open ended of the Coen brother’s films, but will all of the usual technical precision and artistic style that you can count on them for. As strange, meandering, and often confusing story, but extremely compelling and darkly funny, with a fantastic cast.